Friendly Fire
by SapphireOcean
Summary: Twelve's an ace pilot, but he's about to meet his match. [Promptember #3, Complete]
Promptember number 3, for Zankyou no Terror. This prompt came from my hoard of prompt emails from ; it's the first two lines of dialogue.
Damn series ripped my heart out and stomped on it so obviously I retaliated by writing AU sillyfluff.

Gen or ship? the world may never know (I don't)

* * *

"Do you even know how to pilot this thing?"

"Normally I'd lie and say yes, but considering the fact that I almost flew us into that building, I'm going to assume you know the answer."

Nine clung to his seat, stomach rolling along with the plane as Twelve made a barrel roll, hooting. "That's not necessary unless we're being shot at."

"Shut up and get the missiles ready! The radar's picking something up."

"I should've chosen to fly," Nine groaned. He jabbed at his control panel aimlessly. "How do you even–"

"Upper left, the red button."

"…Of course it's the red button."

"Hit it again to fire but wait for my– whoa!"

A large, sleek black jet swept in front of them out of nowhere. Twelve turned their plane sharply to the left; missiles whined past them.

"That was close…"

Maniacal laughter filled their headphones. "Thought you were safe, did you?"

"Five," Twelve shouted. "We won't let you get away with this." He gunned the engines and made another sharp turn, weaving through buildings.

"Maybe she's more powerful, but we have agility on our side."

In short order the plane whipped into position behind the jet. "Fire, Nine, fire!"

Nine slammed the button. The missiles caught their enemy's right wing.

"Direct hit," Twelve crowed. "Now we can– huh?"

He glanced at the radar, which was beeping frantically. "Reinforcements on all sides. Hang on…" He punched the plane into a nose dive, dropping away from the missile smoke. "Turn on the force field."

"Out of juice," Nine said, stone-faced.

"What? But I thought we– whatever. We'll just stick to outmaneuvering. That smokescreen bought us some… time?"

They had left the thicket of buildings for open water. A great shadow loomed above them, casting the ocean into darkness.

"Oh, no," Twelve whispered. "They were decoys." He startled at the voice that wasn't Five's coming through his headset.

"You underestimated us, Twelve."

"Lisa?"

And the first of many bombs fell.

#####

Nine slumped into his seat as the screen went black.

"Wow, Lisa!" Twelve yanked off his headset and visor, hardly setting them down before clambering out of his seat and running over to her. "I had no idea you could be so devious-– wait, _you_ flew it?"

Indeed, like Twelve, Lisa had chosen the right-hand seat. She smiled shyly, nodding thanks at Five for freeing her of her headset.

"She's a natural," Five said, patting Lisa's shoulder. "If it weren't for her stockpiling all the power-ups I don't know where we'd be."

"That's what I usually do," Lisa said by way of modesty.

"And you usually hop into a behemoth for the first time and fly it perfectly too, huh." Twelve grinned as Lisa's smile widened. "Nine," he said as the other came over, looking woozy, "I think we've unleashed a monster."

"Next time I'll fly with her, then. You can't do barrel rolls if you're vacuuming up every item."

"You should have told us you aren't cut out for VR," Five drawled, stretching. "We could've played Street Fighter or something."

Nine snorted.

"All right, ladies," Twelve said, shaking both their hands, "to the victors go the spoils. What movie are we watching tonight?"

Lisa and Five shared a glance.

#####

"I thought you said this was about Magical Girls," Twelve squawked, pausing the TV in shock after Mami Tomoe's death.

"Well, it is," Lisa said, scootching closer to Nine on the couch to avoid Twelve's flailing.

"This is the true face of the story, so to speak." Five sat down on Twelve's other side, fresh bowl of popcorn in hand. She passed it down the line.

"That was the hook moment for me," Lisa said. "I had no choice but to keep watching."

Nine had sat staring down the screen since the start of the conversation. Then the scent of popcorn hit him, Lisa having handed it over, and he snapped to. "Can we put it back on now?" he asked, absently reaching into the bowl.

"Lisa, we've got him." Five leaned around Twelve to high-five the other girl.

"And you said this is a trilogy," Twelve said, raising an eyebrow. "Hmm." He settled back into the couch, leaned his head against Lisa's, and pushed play. "That'll keep us through the weekend."


End file.
